by Alfred Adler
ALFRED ADLER
WHAT LIFE
COULD MEAN
TO YOU
V. 03/15
®Copyright to the TIMELESS WISDOM COLLECTION:
® 2014 Business and Leadership Publishing,
All rights Reserved
Published by Business and Leadership Publishing.
This book is a product of its time and do not necessarily reflect the same views on race, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, and interpersonal relations as it would if it was written today.
We strive to produce high quality books, free of typos. However, please let us know if you find problems in this book, so we can correct them and keep producing better and better books. Please remember that, in the case of British authors, there are words that are spelled differently (humor-humour; realize-realise, etc.).
Join our mailing list at: [email protected], to receive the monthly releases. You will receive a free ebook as welcome gift (you can choose from hundreds!)
INTRODUCTION TO THE TIMELESS WISDOM COLLECTION
Welcome to another volume of the TIMELESS WISDOM COLLECTION.
For years now, this collection has been growing and is now made of thousands of individual books and anthologies, covering the best of the best in fiction and non-fiction: the greatest works of the 19th and 20th Century, written by men and women whose lives were committed to enlighten the world with the wisdom of the ages.
It started with self-development and positive-thinking authors, powerful household names as Napoleon Hill, Dale Carnegie, Charles A. Haanel, William Walker Atkinson, Orison Swett Marden, Wallace Wattles, James Allen, Bruce Maclelland, Christian D Larson, Ernest Holmes, Ralph Waldo Trine, Elizabeth Towne, Henry Wood, Florence Scovell-Shinn, Charles Fillmore, and many more.
We then remember that, since the dawn of humanity, we have always loved story telling. With fables loaded with symbols and allegories, our ancestors passed Wisdom and Knowledge from generation to generation. Today, we still love a good story; we get enamored by the characters, suffer their pain and their tragedies, and enjoy their triumphs and success as if they were ours; as if they were true. And in this way, we learn!
Therefore we decided to feature the best classics of modern literature represented by names as Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, H. G. Wells, George Orwell, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Aldous Huxley, C. S. Lewis, Charles Williams, E. Phillips Oppenheim, E. M. Delafield, Louisa May Alcott, Mark Twain, J. M. Barrie, Rafael Sabatini, H. Rider Haggard, G. K. Chesterton, Edgar Wallace, Lucy Maud Montgomery and many others, that have forever enlarged our capacity to dream.
We have also included the work of leading psychologists as Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, Emile Coué, Isador Coriat and Alfred Adler; prominent modern philosophers as Bertrand Russell and Alfred North Whitehead; authors of theosophy and eastern philosophies as Annie Besant, William Judge, Charles Leadbeater, A. P. Sinnet, and Stewart Edward White; extraordinary scientist as Charles Galton Darwin, Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington and J.W.Dunne; successful industrialists that changed our modern world as Henry Ford, Andrew Carnegie and Charles Schwab; and brilliant Economists that shaped our future as John Maynard Keynes.
In thousands of masterpieces these writers brilliantly captured the essence of life and success in its different manifestations.
Carefully selected, we are now placing in your hands this, the best collection in personal and mind-development in existence.
These books are for enlightenment, for learning, for illumination.
They will provide the seeker –the one who is ready and is paying attention-, some of the deepest answers to life.
Mauricio Chaves-Mesén
Best Selling author of
12 Laws of Great Entrepreneurs;
Yes! To Success
and the series of novels
The Knights of Nostradamus
MORE PSYCHOLOGY BOOKS BY
ISADOR CORIAT
The Meaning of Dreams
Abnormal Psychology
CARL JUNG
Collected Papers on Analytical Psychology
The Theory of Psychoanalysis
SIGMUND FREUD
Sigmund Freud 7 Book Premium Collection
EMILE COUE
Autosuggestion: My Method
Self-Mastery Through Conscious Autosuggestion
C.HARRY BROOKS
The Practice Of Autosuggestion By The Method Of Emile Coue
HERBERT A. PARKYN
Autosuggestion: What It Is And How To Use It For Health, Happiness And Success
THE FOLLOWING ARE JUST A FEW OF OUR MANY GREAT PREMIUM COLLECTIONS:
20th CENTURY CLASSICS
Aldous Huxley (7 books)
Ernest Hemingway (7 books)
E.M.Delafield. Provincial Lady Collection (5 books)
F.Scott Fitzgerald (9 books: 5 novels + dozens of short stories)
William Faulkner Premium (7 books)
George Orwell (48 works)
Charles Williams (7 books)
E.H.Young (5 Books)
Jack London (22 Novels & 57 short stories)
James Joyce (8 Books)
Robert E. Howard (Conan The Barbarian 18 Books)
Sherwood Anderson (8 Books)
Sinclair Lewis Novels 1 to 7 (ALSO: Vol 2. 8 to 12 & Vol.3 13 to 18)
Stephen Leacock (12 Books Humor Collection)
Willa Cather Premium (7 books)
Edgar Rice Burroughs John Carter Mars Stories (11 Books)
Edgar Rice Burroughs Tarzan of the Apes (26 Books)
Edgar Rice Burroughs Jungle Adventures
Edgar Rice Burroughs Romance and Historical Novels
Hugh Walpole. The Herries Chronicle (6 books)
Ford Maddox Fox. The Fifth Queen Trilogy + Parade’s End Tetralogy
Virginia Wolf (8 Books)
Ridgwell Cullum (7 books)
MYSTERY AND DETECTIVE
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle: The Complete Sherlock Holmes novels and stories.
Dashiell Hammett Premium Collection 6 novels/31 short stories
Maurice Le Blanc: Arsene Lupin Collection: 9 novels
Dorothy Sayers Premium 7 novel collection
G.K.Chesterton The Complete Father Brown
Edgar Wallace Just Men
Edgar Wallace J.G.Reeder
John Buchan Premium Collection 7 novels
John Buchan Dickson McCunn Trilogy
J. S. Fletcher 20 novels & 3 short Stories
Jacques Futrelle 5 novels & 50 Short Stories
Raymond Chandler: Phillip Marlowe 7 novel Collection + 12 Crime Novelettes
E.Phillips Oppenheim 8 novel collection (Other collections available)
R. Austin Freeman. Dr. Thorndyke 15 Novels & 28 Short Stories
Arthur B. Reeve. Craig Kennedy Premium Collection
Frank Packard Premium Collection
Frank Packard Jimmie Dale Collection
Hulbert Footner Madame Storey Collection
Hulbert Footner Amos Mappin and others (10 books)
Bulldog Drummond (Sapper) 9 books
Earl Derr Biggers Charlie Chan & others (20 novels and short stories)W
Stephen Vincent Benét: 20 Short Stories & Novels + 37 Poems
Wilkie Collins. Armadale, Man and Wife, The Haunted Hotel
Wilkie Collins. The Woman in White, The Moonstone, No Name
Anna Katherine Green 35 Novels, Novelettes and Short Stories
YOUNG FICTION CLASSICS
C.S.Lewis Chronicles of Narnia 7 book Collection
Louisa May Alcott Premium Collection
Louisa May Alcott 95 Short Stories
L.M.Montgomery: Anne Of Green Gables Premium Collection: 8 Novels
Jane Au
sten Premium Collection
Carolyn Wells Marjorie Maynard 6 Novels
Carolyn Wells Patty Fairfield 14 Novels.
Magic Land of OZ: The complete 16 books
NON FICTION
Wallace D. Wattles (9 books)
Charles Haanel (5 books)
C.S.Lewis (Christian 9 book Collection)
Evelyn Underhill Mysticism and Practical Mysticism (7 books)
The Dale Carnegie Trilogy: How to Win Friends, How to Stop Worrying; Art of Public Speaking
James Allen (21 books)
Theodore Dreiser (5 books)
John Buchan History and Biography (9 books)
G.K.Chesterton: Theology, Tyranny and Literature (10 books)
P.T. Barnum 4 Books
We release amazing new titles every week. If you would like to receive a full list of our titles via email; and/or an email with new releases once every month, please send us an email to: [email protected].
For titles available in your country please search for “TIMELESS WISDOM COLLECTION” in your AMAZON site;
CONTENTS
I. THE MEANING OF LIFE
II. MIND AND BODY
III. FEELINGS OF INFERIORITY AND SUPERIORITY
IV. EARLY MEMORIES
V. DREAMS
VI. FAMILY INFLUENCES
VII. SCHOOL INFLUENCES
VIII. ADOLESCENCE
IX. CRIME AND ITS PREVENTION
X. OCCUPATION
XI. MAN AND FELLOW MAN
XII. LOVE AND MARRIAGE
BOOK ONE
WHAT LIFE COULD MEAN TO YOU
1931
I. THE MEANING OF LIFE
Human beings live in the realm of meanings. We do not experience pure circumstances; we always experience circumstances in their significance for men. Even at its source our experience is qualified by our human purposes. "Wood" means " wood in its relation to mankind”, and "stone" means " stone as it can be a factor in human life." If a man should try to escape meanings and devote himself only to circumstances he would be very unfortunate: he would isolate himself from others: his actions would be useless to himself or to any one; in a word, they would be meaningless. But no human being can escape meanings. We experience reality always through the meaning we give it; not in itself, but as something interpreted. It will be natural to suppose, therefore, that this meaning is always more or less unfinished, incomplete; and even that it is never altogether right. The realm of meanings is the realm of mistakes.
If we asked a man "What is the meaning of life?", he would perhaps be unable to answer. For the most part people do not bother themselves with the question or try to formulate replies. It is true that the question is as old as human history and that in our own time young people — and older people as well — will often break out with the cry, "But what is life for? What does life mean?"
We can say, however, that they ask only when they have suffered a defeat. So long as everything is plain sailing and no difficult tests are set before them the question is never put into words. It is in his actions that every man inevitably puts the question and answers it. If we close our ears to his words and observe his actions, we shall find that he has his own individual "meaning of life" and that all his postures, attitudes, movements, expressions, mannerisms, ambitions, habits and character traits accord with this meaning. He behaves as if he could rely upon a certain interpretation of life. In all his actions there is an implicit reckoning up of the world and of himself; a verdict, "I am like this and the universe is like that”; a meaning given to himself and a meaning given to life.
There are as many meanings given to life as there are human beings, and, as we have suggested, perhaps each meaning involves more or less of a mistake. No one possesses the absolute meaning of life, and we may say that any meaning which is at all serviceable cannot be called absolutely wrong. All meanings are varieties between these two limits. Among these varieties, however, we can distinguish some which answer better and some which answer worse; some where the mistake is small and some where it is large. We can discover what it is that the better meanings share in common, what it is that the worse meanings lack. In this way we can obtain a scientific "meaning of life”, a common measure of true meanings, a meaning which enables us to meet reality in so far as it concerns mankind. Here again we must remember that "true" means true for mankind, true for the purposes and aims of human beings.
There is no other truth than this; and if another truth existed, it could never concern us; we could never know it; it would be meaningless.
Every human being has three main ties; and it is of these ties that he must take account. They make up reality for him. All the problems which confront him are in die direction of these ties. He must always answer these problems because they are always questioning him; and die answers will show us his individual conception of the meaning of life.
The first of these ties is that we are living on the crust of this poor planet, earth, and nowhere else. We must develop under the restrictions and with the possibilities which our place of habitation sets us. In body and mind alike we must develop so that we can continue our personal lives on earth and help to insure the future continuance of mankind. This is one problem which challenges every man for an answer; which no individual can escape. Whatever we do, our actions are our own answer to the situation of human life: they reveal what we think necessary, and fitting, and possible, and desirable. Every answer must be conditioned by the fact that we belong to mankind and that men are beings who inhabit this earth.
Now if we take account of the weakness of the human body and the insecurity in which we are placed, we can see that for our own lives and for the welfare of mankind we must take pains to consolidate our answers, to make them far-seeing and coherent. It is as if we stood before a problem in mathematics; we must work to find a solution. We cannot work haphazard or by guesswork, but we must work consistently, using all the means at our disposal. We shall not find an absolutely perfect answer, an answer established once for all; but, nevertheless, we must use all our ability to find an approximate answer. We must struggle always to find a better answer, and the answer must always be directly applicable to the fact that we are tied to the crust of this poor planet, earth, with all the advantages and disadvantages which our position brings.
Here we come to the second tie. We are not the only members of the human race. There are others around us, and we are living in association with them. The weakness and the limits of the individual human being make it impossible for him to ensure his own aims in isolation. If he lived alone and tried to meet his problems by himself he would perish. He would not be able to continue his own life; he would not be able to continue the life of mankind. He is always tied to other men; and he is tied because of his own weaknesses and insufficiencies and limits. The greatest step for his own welfare and for the welfare of mankind is association. Every answer, therefore, to the problems of life must take account of this tie: it must be an answer in the light of the fact that we are living in association and that we would perish if we were alone. If we are to survive even our emotions must be harmonious with this greatest of problems and purposes and goals—to continue our personal life and to continue the life of mankind, on this planet which we inhabit, in cooperation with our fellow men.
There is a third tie in which we are bound. Human beings are living in. two sexes. The preservation of individual and of common life must take account of this fact. The problem of love and marriage belongs to this third tie. No man or woman can escape giving an answer.
Whatever a human being does when confronted by this problem, this is his answer. There are many different ways in which human beings attempt to solve this problem: their actions always show their conception of the only way in which the problem is soluble for themselves. These three ties, therefore, set three problems: how to find an. occupation which will enable us to survive under the limitations set by the nature of the earth; how to find a position among our
fellows, so that we may cooperate and share the benefits of cooperation; how to accommodate ourselves to the fact that we live in two sexes and that the continuance and furtherance of mankind depends upon our love-life.
Individual Psychology has found no problems in life which cannot be grouped under these three main problems—occupational, social and sexual. It is in his response to these three problems that every individual human being unfailingly reveals his own deep sense of the meaning of life. Suppose, for example, we consider a man whose love life is incomplete, who makes no efforts in his profession, who has few friends and who finds contact with his fellows painful. From the limits and restrictions of his life we may conclude that he feels being alive as a difficult and dangerous thing, offering few opportunities and many defeats. His narrow field of action is to be construed as a judgment, "Life means — to preserve myself against hurt, to stockade myself in, to escape untouched."
Suppose, on the other hand, we consider a man whose love-life is an intimate and many-sided cooperation, whose work results in useful achievements, whose friends are many and whose contacts with his fellows are wide and fruitful. Of such a man we may conclude that he feels life as a creative task, offering many opportunities and no irrecoverable defeats. His courage in meeting all the problems of life is to be construed as a judgment, "Life means — to be interested in my fellow men, to be part of the whole, to contribute my share to the welfare of mankind."
It is here that we find the common measure of all mistaken “meanings of life” and the common measure of all true "meanings of life." All failures — neurotics, psychotics, criminals, drunkards, problem children, suicides, perverts and prostitutes — are failures because they are lacking in fellow-feeling and social interest. They approach the problems of occupation, friendship and sex without the confidence that they can be solved by cooperation. The meaning they give to life is a private meaning: no one else is benefited by the achievement of their aims and their interest stops short at their own persons. Their goal of success is a goal of mere fictitious personal superiority and their triumphs have meaning only to themselves. Murderers have confessed to a feeling of power when they held a bottle of poison in their hands, but clearly they were confirming their importance only to themselves; to the rest of us the possession of a bottle of poison cannot seem to give them superior worth. A private meaning is in fact no meaning at all. Meaning is only possible in communication: a word which meant something to one person only would really be meaningless. It is the same with our aims and actions; their only meaning is their meaning for others. Every human being strives for significance; but people always make mistakes if they do not see that their whole significance must consist in their contribution to the lives of others.